Excavating, Preserving, and Interpreting a Town Rooted in Activism: The North Brentwood Digital Archaeology and Heritage Project

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The activist roots of North Brentwood, Maryland, were planted by its founders. The Randall Family purchased the first lot in 1891 to dodge the racial housing covenants that were spreading through neighboring developments. Decades later, North Brentwood became the first incorporated Black town in Washington D.C.’s metropolitan area, and the second such town in the State of Maryland. Jeremiah Hawkins, the first mayor, fought for levees to keep flood waters at bay. Rev. Perry Smith III organized Freedom Rides and many others from town rode those buses south. Rev. Smith also worked to break up local White Citizens Councils. This small sample of examples from North Brentwood represents a legacy of activist practice that is the community’s heritage, passed from one generation to the next. The NBDAHP is working to answer lingering historical questions and to pass this heritage to the younger digital generations using multiple approaches.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Archaeology, Activism, and Protest

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow